The civil trial in New York against Donald Trump, accused of rape and defamation by a former journalist, came to an end Monday, May 8 with a last pass of arms between lawyers, those of the former president denouncing a machination.
After these last arguments of the two sides, long and combative, a jury of nine citizens will decide from Tuesday if the billionaire must pay damages to E. Jean Carroll.
She accuses him of raping her in the spring of 1996, in a fitting room of a luxury department store in New York, Begdorf Goodman, and then defaming her, after she made the first accusations in a book in 2019.
"Nobody, not even a former president, is above the law," said the lawyer of former Elle magazine columnist Roberta Kaplan in front of the six men and three women who make up the jury.
"They want you to hate him enough to ignore the facts," retorted, during a 2:30 a.m. argument, Donald Trump's counsel, Joe Tacopina, who again accused the plaintiff of fabricating the story.
Donald Trump absent
Donald Trump never appeared in federal court in Manhattan during the two weeks of the trial, and the jury had to settle Thursday for the video of his testimony in the proceedings, where he repeats not to remember E. Jean Carroll and assures that "she is not his type".
But Roberta Kaplan recalled that the former tenant of the White House confused in a photo the complainant with his former wife, the actress Marla Maples. E. Jean Carroll "was exactly his type," assured the lawyer.
The 79-year-old plaintiff was able to sue under a New York state law that allows victims of sexual assault to file a civil suit, even if the statute of limitations is in criminal proceedings.
If there are no eyewitnesses who saw Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll more than 25 years ago in the shelves - deserted according to the complainant - of the store, two close friends of the journalist confirmed in court that she had confided to them, shortly after the alleged facts, to have been "assaulted" or "attacked" by the businessman. And two women, among those who have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault in the past, also gave their testimony before the jury.
According to Mr. Kaplan, the former American president would have acted each time according to the same "modus operandi", the one he describes himself in a video that became famous, where he is heard in 2005 boasting of kissing and touching women as he pleases.
"Common sense"
Donald Trump's lawyer conceded that his client could express himself in a "raw" way about women, but "that does not make an incredible story credible," he said.
Pointing to inconsistencies and the absence of physical evidence, he appealed to the "common sense" of the jury: if Donald Trump had assaulted E. Jean Carroll in a fitting room, "he would have been immediately arrested". She "never went to the police" because otherwise, "they would have conducted an investigation," he said.
Describing an outright conspiracy, the lawyer even suggested that E. Jean Carroll was inspired by an old episode of the police series "New York, Special Unit", based on a rape at Bergdorf Goodman.
According to him, the former journalist wanted to sell her book better in 2019. E. Jean Carroll has always explained that she did not denounce the facts for fear that Donald Trump would destroy her reputation. Her lawyer recalled that she had testified "for more than two full days, answering each question", including on "the reasons why she had not screamed". Donald Trump "never looked you in the eye to deny," another lawyer for E. Trump added, addressing the jury. Jean Carroll, Mike Ferrara.
Even in civil matters, a conviction would add to the legal troubles of the former president, who is running for the White House again in 2024. In early April, unprecedented for a former US president, he was indicted in criminal proceedings in New York for 34 accounting and tax frauds related to payments to cover up embarrassing cases before the 2016 presidential election.
With AFP
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